Anti-Aging Update: 4 Powerful New Ingredients

Exciting additions to the skin-care aisle treat everything from wrinkles to redness—without a prescription.

RHAMNOSE

What it does: Unlike retinoids, which work by increasing cell turnover (often leaving redness and flaking), rhamnose signals a jump-start, telling the relevant cells to behave like younger versions of themselves, explains Ranella Hirsch, a dermatologist in Boston. The sugar molecule generated buzz at a recent World Congress of Dermatology conference. It was shown to thicken the epidermis significantly after eight weeks and amp up production of elastin, collagen, and other beneficial proteins while diminishing the enzymes that break down collagen and lead to wrinkles.